Greening of the Earth and its drivers
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Climate change has contributed to degradation chiefly in regions around 15-45°S, although studies disagree regarding the exact region of impact.
“Analyses of remotely sensed vegetation greenness (and vegetation browning) as well as model-based studies found that climate change has contributed to degradation chiefly in regions located around 15-45 o S, although studies disagree regarding the exact region of impact (36,60,61).”
From Restoring Degraded Lands (2021) · cites this paper as [60]
The passage on regional climate effects (section labeled Abstract; no page given) says climatic effects are negative in some regions and that South America is the only continent where negative effects were statistically significant. It also reports inconsistency between models. It does not establish that degradation occurred chiefly at 15–45°S or that studies disagree about the exact region affected. (LLM, conf=0.84)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredIn many regions, leaf-area index and land ecosystem carbon uptake have increased over recent decades, partly due to the CO2 fertilization effect.
“In many regions, for example, leaf-area index and land ecosystem carbon uptake have increased over recent decades, partly due to the CO 2 fertilization effect (60,62).”
From Restoring Degraded Lands (2021) · cites this paper as [60]
The Abstract reports widespread increases in leaf-area index during 1982–2009 and attributes much of the greening trend to CO2 fertilization. It also describes a modeled increase in leaf-level carbon assimilation in response to rising CO2, but does not establish an increase in land-ecosystem carbon uptake over recent decades. (LLM, conf=0.85)
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Cites
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A large and persistent carbon sink in the world’s forests
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Self-citationDetermination of Deforestation Rates of the World's Humid Tropical Forests
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“This is particularly important owing to the role of the Amazon forests in the global carbon cycle 19,20 .”
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Research works printed but not linked: 4
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Buildings as a global carbon sink
Churkina, G., Organschi, A., Reyer, C. P. O., Ruff, A., Vinke, K., Liu, Z., Reck, B. K., Graedel, T. E., & Schellnhuber, H. J. (2020) · Nature Sustainability · doi:10.1038/s41893-019-0462-4 · Cited by 1,045 · see citing works
Climate, ecosystems, and planetary futures: The challenge to predict life in Earth system models
Bonan, G. B., & Doney, S. C. (2018) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.aam8328 · Cited by 698 · see citing works
Vegetation structural change since 1981 significantly enhanced the terrestrial carbon sink
Chen, J. M., Ju, W., Ciais, P., Viovy, N., Liu, R., Liu, Y., & Lu, X. (2019) · Nature Communications · doi:10.1038/s41467-019-12257-8 · Cited by 492 · see citing works
Self-citationLand use change and carbon emissions of a transformation to timber cities
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Impacts and risks of “realistic” global warming projections for the 21st century
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Self-citationNegative emissions technologies: A complementary solution for climate change mitigation
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Self-citationAssessing human and environmental pressures of global land-use change 2000–2010
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Growing season extension affects ozone uptake by European forests
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- Authors
- Zhu, Z., Piao, S., Myneni, R. B., Huang, M., Zeng, Z., Canadell, J. G., Ciais, P., Sitch, S., Friedlingstein, P., Arneth, A., Cao, C., Cheng, L., Kato, E., Koven, C., Li, Y., Lian, X., Liu, Y., Liu, R., Mao, J., Pan, Y., Peng, S., Peñuelas, J., Poulter, B., Pugh, T. A. M., Stocker, B. D., Viovy, N., Wang, X., Wang, Y., Xiao, Z., Yang, H., Zaehle, S., & Zeng, N.
- Affiliations
- Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN)
- Boston University (US)
- Peking University (CN)
- CSIRO Oceans and Atmosphere (AU)
- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR)
- University of Exeter (GB)
- Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (DE)
- Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (AU)
- Institute of Applied Energy (JP)
- Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (US)
- Oak Ridge National Laboratory (US)
- Beijing Normal University (CN)
- Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (ES)
- Montana State University (US)
- University of Bern (CH)
- Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry (DE)
- University of Maryland, College Park (US)
- Corresponding author
- Piao, Shilong
- ORCID
- Zhu, Zaichun
- Piao, Shilong
- Myneni, Ranga B.
- Huang, Mengtian
- Zeng, Zhenzhong
- Canadell, Josep G.
- Ciais, Philippe
- Sitch, Stephen
- Friedlingstein, Pierre
- Arneth, Almut
- Cao, Chunxiang
- Cheng, Lei
- Kato, Etsushi
- Koven, Charles
- Li, Yue
- Lian, Xu
- Liu, Yongwen
- Liu, Ronggao
- Mao, Jiafu
- Pan, Yaozhong
- Peng, Shushi
- Peñuelas, Josep
- Poulter, Benjamin
- Pugh, Thomas A. M.
- Stocker, Benjamin D.
- Viovy, Nicolas
- Wang, Xuhui
- Xiao, Zhiqiang
- Yang, Hui
- Zaehle, Sönke
- Zeng, Ning
- Venue
- Nature Climate Change
- Published
- 2016-04-25
- Volume
- 6
- Issue
- 8
- Pages
- 791-795
- ISSN
- 1758-678X (ISSN-L)
- 1758-6798
- OpenAlex
- W2336426693
- Cited by
- 2,779
- References
- 3
- Citations by year
- 2026: 360 · 2025: 342 · 2024: 342 · 2023: 353 · 2022: 350 · 2021: 320 · 2020: 231 · 2019: 199 · 2018: 161 · 2017: 94 · 2016: 26
- FWCI
- 139.94
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- ddd.uab.cat
- Licence
- Locations
- Nature Climate Change (publishedVersion)
- University of Birmingham Research Portal (University of Birmingham) (publishedVersion)
- Open Research Exeter (University of Exeter) (acceptedVersion)
- Dipòsit Digital de Documents de la UAB (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona) (submittedVersion, public-domain)
- LA Referencia (Red Federada de Repositorios Institucionales de Publicaciones Científicas) (submittedVersion, public-domain)
- OSTI OAI (U.S. Department of Energy Office of Scientific and Technical Information) (submittedVersion)
- HAL (submittedVersion)
- eScholarship (California Digital Library) (submittedVersion)
- Lund University Publications (Lund University) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- U.S. Department of Energy (AC05-00OR22725, DE--AC05--00OR22725, DE-AC05?, 00OR22725)
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration (AC05-00OR22725, DE-AC05-00OR22725)
- Battelle (DE-AC05- 00OR22725, AC05-00OR22725, DE-AC05)
- European Commission (282672, 603542)
- Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation
- National Natural Science Foundation of China (2013CB956303, 111 Project, DE-AC05-00OR22725, 41530528, B14001)
- Chinese Academy of Sciences (XDB03030404)
- Ministry of Environment
- Higher Education Discipline Innovation Project (B14001)
- Office of Science (DEAC05- 00OR22725, -610028, AC05-00OR22725)
- National Key Research and Development Program of China (2013CB956303)
- Biological and Environmental Research (00OR22725, DE‐AC05–00OR22725)
- Oak Ridge National Laboratory (AC05-00OR22725, DE-AC05-00OR22725)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Ecology › Remote Sensing in Agriculture
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Global and Planetary Change › Land Use and Ecosystem Services
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Global and Planetary Change › Plant Water Relations and Carbon Dynamics
- Keywords
- global greening, vegetation browning, CO2 fertilization, nitrogen deposition, climate change impacts on vegetation, land cover change, ecosystem services, phosphorus limitation, Tibetan Plateau, tropical vegetation
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